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The use of functional neuroimaging to evaluate psychological and other non-pharmacological treatment

A large number of studies have provided evidence for the efficacy of psychological and other non-pharmacological interventions in the treatment of chronic pain. While these methods are increasingly used to treat pain, remarkably few studies focused on the exploration of their neural correlates. The aim of this article was to review the findings from neuroimaging studies that evaluated the neural response to distraction-based techniques, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), clinical hypnosis, mental imagery, physical therapy/exercise, biofeedback, and mirror therapy. To date, the results from studies that used neuroimaging to evaluate these methods have not been conclusive and the experimental methods have been suboptimal for assessing clinical pain. Still, several different psychological and non-pharmacological treatment modalities were associated with increased pain-related activations of executive cognitive brain regions, such as the ventral- and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. There was also evidence for decreased pain-related activations in afferent pain regions and limbic structures. If future studies will address the technical and methodological challenges of today's experiments, neuroimaging might have the potential of segregating the neural mechanisms of different treatment interventions and elucidate predictive and mediating factors for successful treatment outcomes. Evaluations of treatment-related brain changes (functional and structural) might also allow for sub-grouping of patients and help to develop individualized treatments.

Articles from the TimBrunson.com blog

What is the definition of the human ego? And, how do we know if it is healthy or not? Many dictionaries define ego as his sense of one’s self. Freud even talked about the ego being equal to consciousness. This would imply a level of self-awareness of oneself and how they distinguish between their personal boundaries and the rest of reality. When a person can function within their reality with a proper assessment of threats and opportunities, they could be considered to have a healthy ego.
When exploring the idea of the human ego, it is important to note how the concept has changed through...

According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science, alcoholism and the various forms of alcohol abuse costs the United States between $40 and $60 billion annually. This is due to health and medical care costs, lost production, motor vehicle accidents, violent crime, and other various social costs. People who have alcoholism or alcohol addiction frequently need medical or mental health assistance before being able to quit.
Most people do not understand the difference between alcoholism and alcohol addictions. The former is an allergy, which involves the body’s...

Migraine headaches can be caused by wide variety of events and situations. Some are environmental. Others may be related to a person's lifestyle or their behavior. Their ability to get sufficient sleep, eat proper diets, and to manage their thinking patterns are all areas that may be affected by the proper application of hypnosis.
As with all health concerns migraine headaches involves patterns. As all hypnotherapists know, patterns – and especially pattern resistance to change – can be positively affected by hypnosis. By their very nature all hypnotic inductions have this feature.
As...